Help on choosing a Bourbon to Re-Barrel

[barturtle]

I will send you a sample when it is finished and re-bottled.

I totally support samples, however, I think that many of us are interested in these rebarreling projects that are going on and those doing them should, if they can make it, bring their samples-along with a bottle of what they started with, to the KBF in Sept. Then we can all see how these are working, as I'm sure that more than one of us is waiting to see some results before we take the plunge ourselves.

As far as the finishing with other spirits, while I've seen great success in this domain with scotch, I've been less than thrilled with the results I've seen in bourbon so far. It may be that they didn't use a bourbon that could handle the finish or that they were mismatched-I've had Port, Cognac, and Mesquite finishes. However I would be interested to see more as I think this could work, I just haven't had one yet that did. I would like to see one done with calvados, for some reason this just works in my head(though it may be horrible) but I see it either as a very short term finish or an extremely long term finish, the middle ground (which is what I expect I've tasted so far) just doesn't seem to work.

Either way best of luck and I hope you can make it to KY for the Fest with samples of your results.

[BarItemsPlus1]

Timothy I may be able to do just that and bring some samples over.
Regarding the finish on bourbon....I believe it all has to do with the grain used - in other words ingredients have to compliment each other...eg. Sweet/Sour
I find scotch has more of, for want of a better word, a sour taste to start so complimenting with the sweetness of the grape makes for an excellent whisky.
So I am thinking to compliment bourbon I would need something like...a white rum or possibly Tequila(yes-that could be the go)...see where I'm going??
I will let you know when I get to doing that project, Cheers Tim
Troy.

[Gillman]

Certainly it is an interesting idea to re-cask whisky of already prolonged age. As you said, you can give it a port finish or another quality. Just recently I sampled Lagavulin 16 years old, this is the regular one, not the Distiller's Edition, but even the regular one shows some evidence of aging (at least for a time) in sherry casks. It may be interesting to impart that kind of, or another, winy taste to a 21 year old whisky. Imparting a flavour derived from sherry, rum, port or of course bourbon to a whisky (of whatever age) that might benefit from same makes sense and I gather this is what you are planning. Some kegs in the past were small, e.g., Boston Brands was a well-known line of whiskeys and cordials in America. They had a blended whiskey that showed a picture of a small keg lashed to the underside of a rocking chair. The chair-rocking idea was an old one taken from the experience of seeing whiskey and other liquors improved by transport in the holds of clippers. If you have a rocking chair, use of it in this way would hasten the aging but this probably would be better with a young whiskey.

To answer your original question, I'd probably use something like Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark. Both would I think benefit from an extra year or two aging if not more. Maybe 6 months in such a keg, rocked or not, would equal 3 years of aging. We need the engineers to help us here. It may be better if the whiskey you put in was higher than 40% abv (Maker's is 45%) but I don't think it matters over a relatively short period. The U.S. rules on entry prescribe a top limit, not a bottom one...

So, you've made a good point: small re-aging kegs have dual capability: they can be used both to "finish" (and, I would add, marry a blend of) whiskies, and improve a young whisky by making it more mature.

Gary

[BarItemsPlus1]

Just an update on the barrel re-filling....
Filled the 2L barrel(23-12-05) with port to 'condition' it ready for the filling of bourbon in around 6 months.....
This is the port I used....700ml of the first and the balance fill with the second port